Fist of Legend

"Fist of Legend" is a great movie. Really great. Jet Li plays Chen Zhen, a character played by Bruce Lee in "Chinese Connection", and he does it perfect. Bruce Lee's Chen is a character filled with anger, hate and wish for revenge. Jet Li's Chen is much different. He is cold blooded, there is no anger in him. The difference between Jet Li and Bruce Lee is the same as the difference between "Fist of Legend" and "Chinese Connection". Bruce Lee's character hates Japan and everything Japanese. Jet Li's Chen wishes his revenge but he respects Japanese culture and there isn't hate. If "Chinese Connection" is a movie of the hate and the anger, "Fist of Legend" is a movie of the peace and the respect.

A remake of Bruce Lee's Fist of Fury, this movie gives us amazing martial arts sequences, with good plot and acting in between.

The fights are spectacular. A lot of martial arts movies incorporate wonderful movements and acrobatics, designed to show off the skill and grace of the fighter. However in a life or death struggle, these sometimes seem out of place. This is a "realistic" martial arts movie. You almost feel yourself cringing with each hit. As the man said: "These lads are out to hurt each other." This is fighting in its purest, taking cue from Bruce Lee's personal style, where the aim is to defeat your opponent in the most efficient manner possible. The opening fight of the movie sets its style right away and continues to its climax.

But what made this movie go above and beyond a martial arts flick is the storyline and plot. This movie deals with themes of racism, tolerance and acceptance not only between the Chinese and Japanese, but within each group as well. Here Jet Li shines in his performance. While events cause him to lose his composure and give in to his feelings, at the core you see that he is a righteous person. When he realizes the correct course of action, either by himself, or when it is pointed out by others, he does what is right. And we see the people around him learn from his behavior and they seek to emulate it.

The movie also tries to present a rather fair view of both the Chinese and Japanese. Neither side is portrayed as good or evil, rather as normal human beings, running the whole spectrum from selfish to noble, from hateful to kind.

As a martial arts movie, this is one of the best ever made, but it stands on its own as a good film, one dealing with a historical subject that has a very strong resonance even today.

Bruce Lee will probably always be remembered and referred to as the greatest Screen martial artist of all time, and his most famous movie probably The Chinese Connection AKA Fist Of Fury, the movie that Fist Of Legend remakes, or the story at least. I would love to have had the chance to see Bruce and Jet square off because im not sure the outcome would be so clear. In this remake Jet surpasses even the Dragon himself, and i say this in all respect to Bruce.

The story is well known, but this remake goes deeper in probing the racial conflict in japanese occupied china. Jet plays folk legend Chen Zen, famously out to avenge the death of his master by seemingly fighting every japanese martial artist in the world, while at the same time battling racism not just from the japanese but his own people.

Yuen Woo Ping is famed for his fight sequences and use of wires, but in this movie wires are used in no more than two or three scenes, while the movie still retains the classic martial arts fights, in barren landscapes and courtyards of kung fu schools. Thus this is probably the greatest showcase yet of the incredible talents of Jet. Without the use of wires jet can move more freely and more realistially and while it cannot be denied that you must have great talent to work a wire to your advantage as jet did in the once upon a time series, this really shows us just what jet is capable of everyday, and boy, what a talent.

The showdown with the japanese karate master in the hills where jet's character comes to live is beautifully choregraphed, packed with skill, gracefull like a deadly ballet and totally natural, the way great martial arts should be, absolutly awe inspiring. The same can be said for every fight sequence in this movie, all left me gasping, all left me full of admiration, not just for jet who i have long believed to be possibly the greatest talent in martial arts today or any other time, but for his opponents.

Great story, amazing fight sequences, fluent direction, smooth cinematography... it might not be as great or as grand in narration as Once Upon a Time in China or Crouching Tiger, but this is one of the greatest martial arts film ever, and accessable to everyone. One of my Jet Li favourites along with OUATIC2 and Tai Chi Master (AKA Twin Warriors)and definetly one of my all time favourites.

Purely amazing. This is definitely the greatest martial arts movie that I've ever seen. I've seen the English dubbed version, so the acting isn't one hundred percent, but it's just pure action and emotion. It's great.

Jet Li is without a doubt the next Jackie Chan, except cooler. When he faces off against the (evil) General Vegito at the end, it was definitely one of the best fight scenes put on film. Oh, and the Japanese girl was hot.

Great action movie, 8/10.

I had commented earlier this year that Chinese martial arts sensation Jet Li's most recent action film, "Danny the Dog" or "Unleashed" as it has been advertised here in the states, was the best film that I'd ever seen him act in. The fights in that movie, with choreography that was courtesy of Yuen Wo Ping, were brutal and spectacular and captured a side of Li that had not yet been seen by the audiences of American martial arts cinema.

After seeing "Danny the Dog," I've become convinced that there's no question of Li's talents as an actor and performer, as he had starred in some 40 successful action movies in China before making his American debut as the main villain in "Lethal Weapon 4" (1998). One of Li's most famous roles from his time in China was that of Chen Zhen in 1994's "Fist of Legend."

"Fist of Legend," a remake of the classic Bruce Lee movie "The Chinese Connection" (1972), is set in China in 1937 when the Japanese were occupying Shanghai and racial tensions between Chinese citizens and the Japan military were high. (I'm not all that familiar with Chinese history so I'm not going to pretend I know a whole lot about how these two industrious cultures clashed with one another in the streets.)

Li stars as Chen Zhen, a bright martial arts student who is away in Japan studying engineering. In the opening action sequence at a Japanese school, we already get a sense of the animosity the two rivaling cultures share, as Chen takes on an entire squad of Japanese police officers in the classroom as they attempt to arrest him. But of course, even more seriously, he has no idea of the ills that await him once he returns to his homeland when he receives word that his beloved martial arts master was killed in a challenge.

I was amazed at the degree of restraint exercised in "Fist of Legend." Obviously very few martial arts movies have action that is realistic, but this film has the kind of sequences that I really like, which is the nearly complete absence of wirework or "Matrix-fu" or "wire-fu." Instead, like my favorite American Jet Li productions, the aforementioned "Danny the Dog" or "Kiss of the Dragon" (2001), much of the action is down-to-earth and ground-based.

Back in China, Chen finds that life in his homeland is not the same as when he left it. He finds himself at odds with his best friend, who is now the academy's leading martial arts master but the students prefer Chen Zhen to him. Even worse, Chen had fallen in love with a Japanese woman while out of country, and faces the skepticism of his fellow countrymen and women as a result - his allegiance to his fellow Chinamen is now being tested.

But many of these personal woes will have to be pushed to the side, as Chen Zhen must square off against the Japanese general, who Chen suspects had his master poisoned and who also looks to shut the school down and misplace its students. Of course, Chen's not going away without a fight, and it becomes a showdown between warring cultures, the outcome of which we already know from history.

As stated earlier, "Fist of Legend" showcases Li in one of the most famous roles of his career as an action film star. He's channeling the mighty Bruce Lee himself in his on-screen actions - particularly evident in the film's over-the-top finale where Li battles the towering Japanese general in a no-holds-barred fight to the death.

In the case of many imported movies from China, it's easy to get over the horrendous dubbing, frantic pacing, and any changes that may have made to the film in order to accommodate the interest of American viewers. "Fist of Legend" was directed by Gordon Chan and choreographed by Yuen Wo Ping, who shows us what Li can really do in the absence of today's highly stylized wirework.

Now we know why Jet Li, Jackie Chan, and Bruce Lee are icons on the kung-fu movie circuit: they've all made movies and are idolized by a devoted fanbase that encompasses millions of loyal followers. Li is currently the screen's most electric and sensational martial arts star; his work in this film and this year's "Danny the Dog" show us why that's true. I'm just waiting for his acceptance speech - that may be just a pipe dream, but hey, anything is possible in today's times.

8/10